The reviews are trickling in on Amazon.jp, and while they’re almost universally positive, there are a few middle-of-the-road ones that I thought you might be interested in. They basically have the same complaints that a lot of readers outside Japan expressed — “the art looks too much like Tsubasa,” “it looks like a doujinshi,” “the new cards are weird,” “Syaoran’s lying too much,” etc. Some positive reviews picked up on the Tsubasa resemblance, too, but in their case they actually preferred it!

They were referring to the artwork when they said it looked like a doujinshi. I partly disagree with you — I think the color illustrations have richer palettes and better compositions than in the original CCS, and CLAMP is demonstrating a much greater command of anatomy and action drawing (which stood out to me during Sakura’s cheerleading practice ). Their depiction of the movement and weight of fabric is fantastic, too.

On the other hand, the line widths are pretty thick, and the action scenes are hard to parse (just like in Tsubasa). As Sakura84 pointed out, the characters’ proportions aren’t consistent even within the same chapter (Kero is the worst example), and the child characters in particular look small and vulnerable compared to their younger selves in CCS. Mokona wrote that she prayed every day to make Sakura as cute as possible while drawing the original series, but here, Sakura is sometimes so blatantly, transparently “cute” that I want to roll my eyes.

I think these problems were inevitable — the members of CLAMP have changed as artists over the past sixteen years, and they can’t go back to drawing CCS just like it used to be. In terms of both artwork and story, maybe it’s easier to just appreciate the Clear Card arc as the Clear Card arc and not the fabled ultimate conclusion to Cardcaptor Sakura.

I think these problems were inevitable — the members of CLAMP have changed as artists over the past sixteen years, and they can’t go back to drawing CCS just like it used to be. In terms of both artwork and story, maybe it’s easier to just appreciate the Clear Card arc as the Clear Card arc and not the fabled ultimate conclusion to Cardcaptor Sakura.
Maybe we should really do that. It would be such a pity if we let ourselves get bitter over changes that were inevitable.
It’s not -all- bad, like you said anatomy is now better, finally those impossibly broad shoulders have disappeared!!

I think the broad shoulders looked really good on characters like Seishirou and Kazuhiko, but not so much on younger guys like Touya and Yukito. What really weirds me out now about the way CLAMP used to draw male characters is their facial structure — they all had ridiculously pointy noses and razor-sharp chins. Some Japanese fans on Twitter were comparing Clow’s profile picture in the first Clear Card arc volume to Gakuen Handsome, which is, um, self-explanatory.

As far as color illustrations go, I agree with you. I can see the improvement and I’m very pleased with them. I think I’m still feeling a little “bratty” after finding out that the screentones are all digital now. I keep noticing how digital they look and that bothers me. And yes, Kero-chan looks very weird sometimes. I talked about this with Sakura84-chan as well.

I think the main problem are indeed the thick lines.

maybe it’s easier to just appreciate the Clear Card arc as the Clear Card arc and not the fabled ultimate conclusion to Cardcaptor Sakura.

I still have faith that Clear Card will prove to be just as worthy as the original series. Otherwise it would be a big disappointment to revive the series.

I think these problems were inevitable — the members of CLAMP have changed as artists over the past sixteen years, and they can’t go back to drawing CCS just like it used to be.

I honestly don’t like the digital screentones, either! They really stick out.

I think the reason why Kero looks weird is because Mokona and Nekoi keep passing him off to each other. The Kero on the volume cover above looks like Nekoi’s work, whereas the Kero on the surprise Nakayoshi cover a few issues ago looked more like Mokona’s “normal” version.

I really totally get what they mean with the similar drawing style, but I don’t agree with them for it to be something to ‘complain’ about though: it’s the same characters drawn by the same authors, and while CLAMP have the unique original trait to change their drawing style a bit from one series to another, it’s obvious that the characters would still be recognizable, especially since TRC is a series they worked on for so many years ^^;

As for ‘Syaoran lying’, it indeed does not match his strait-forward and honest personality, and the contrast of his romantic relationship with Sakura between the first and second series is brutal (at least, what was shown to us on the last chapter of vol12…), and I think CLAMP are aware of it since they made him look, chapter after chapter, almost too guilty and regretful, as if he was committing some great sin…which might be the case, we will have to wait and see what comes next! 😀

I am not blindly a fan of CCS either: there are things I am not totally satisfied with of course, but I learned the hard way during the TRC years that when you think (waaayy) too much about the plot and nitpick on every single panel and line (yes, that bad…), then you really loose all the pleasure of simply reading a manga and enjoying it while it lasts….

I am not blindly a fan of CCS either: there are things I am not totally satisfied with of course, but I learned the hard way during the TRC years that when you think (waaayy) too much about the plot and nitpick on every single panel and line (yes, that bad…), then you really loose all the pleasure of simply reading a manga and enjoying it while it lasts….
THIS^
It’s very important that we all relax and let us be guided by CLAMP into this new plot development. With time we’ll see if this ( in Syaoran’s case) has been a case of OOCness or there was a reason that is totally IC. I also learned the hard way with TRC, we suffered a lot and at a certain point we didn’t know where we were going with the story, but looking at the whole work from a distance, it really is a masterpiece, beautiful in its complexity.

About the art, yes I’ve noticed a drop in quality too. Sakura and Syaoran, especially, are not consistent from one panel to another. It feels like Mokona is still trying to nail the old CCS style down, Sakura sways from extremely childish looks (see chapter 7, when she’s saying that everybody is kind to Akiho) to more “grown-up” ones, and it’s destabilizing.

I admit I expected a boom in sales, but it’s not bad. Just like Chibiyuuto said, I think we’ll see a raise in sales with the next volumes, provided that CLAMP fix some issues (fluff SELLS) and level off the art style.

Just like Chibiyuuto said, I think we’ll see a raise in sales with the next volumes, provided that CLAMP fix some issues (fluff SELLS) and level off the art style.

Thinking about “fluff” scenes, Nanase Ohkawa has framed the series in such a way that it’s actually difficult to fit in the lighthearted aspects of the original CCS. Since Sakura has had some kind of incident every day since she had that first dream, and since the Clear Cards attack her no matter where she is with no advance warning, there are few opportunities for new costumes, there’s not enough time for new school uniforms, and there’s little space for full slice-of-life chapters (like the Valentine’s Day or White Day chapters from the Sakura Card arc). Chapter 4 was a good example of this problem: Sakura got a cute baking scene with Tomoyo and some nice interactions with Touya and Yukito, but it was cut short by “Seige” right in Sakura’s own bedroom. The only reason Sakura got to wear a costume was because Tomoyo happened to be fitting her for one at the time.

I wonder if CLAMP is going to ease the pressure a little and have the Mysterious Cloaked Figure® give Sakura some breathing room so that she can have a whole day out with her friends, go on a date with Syaoran, or — heaven forbid — make it to the summer by the end of the series.

You’ve summarized things very well in your post, and I very much agree with it all ^^

Since the cards keep on attacking Sakura relentlessly chapter after chapter, it is indeed quite impossible to appreciate anything else, since *nothing* else is happening: the story is overridden with the Clear Cards captures only, and we seem to only see flashes of other things/characters here and there, but nothing too deep because their starring time is too short.
Nonetheless, Syaoran’s conversations with Eriol reveals that these events are not quite normal: he showed surprise and worry that said cards kept on popping one after another at such a fast pace and are literally haunting Sakura everywhere she goes and at any given time… I assume from this that this whole arc won’t be like this (I certainly hope so!!) and that there is actually an explanation behind this overload of cards captures at high speed: meaning that this is part of a bigger plot that we, readers, can’t understand yet, and that unlike the previous 2 arcs in which capturing all the cards was the ultimate goal, in the present Clear Arc it is inversely only the beginning of something a lot bigger, which would also justify Syaraon’s pained expressions and lies, and Eriol avoiding Sakura, because they are both waiting for that ‘one moment in time’, something CLAMP used a lot in xxxholic and TRC…

Exactly! I’ve always thought that the cards aren’t the real deal here… They’re not not the ultimate “goal” of the plot and they will only serve as a plot device to reach “something bigger”! I feel it’s very CLAMP-style and I’m looking forward to see what they have in store for us! (Even if for now the fluff is suffering from this T_T)

This pretty much takes us back to the first page or chapter 01, in which it says that “When all the cards came together, that wasn’t an end, but rather the beginning. The beginning of an end.”

We all logically assumed it was about the sakura cards (since a sakura card was drawn on that page…) and while it might also be true, but seeing the actual events, I think this sentence could also be applied to the Clear Cards now: that their capture is the beginning of something, of an ‘end’, for better or for worst…
Or maybe it’s simply about both? It says ‘cards’, but not which sort…

And yes, don’t worry I’m not forgetting: CLAMP owe us our SxS fluff! We had to live off fanarts and fanfics for 20 years, they better spoil us rotten now! XD